November 10, 2006
St. Petersburg Times

Al-Arian attorney charges bias

He says a U.S. prosecutor openly condemned Islam and is aiming to
stretch his client's sentence.

By Meg Laughlin

Documents unsealed in the Sami Al-Arian case Thursday raise questions
about an assistant U.S. attorney's motives for requiring Al-Arian to
testify before a federal grand jury in Virginia.

Al-Arian's Tampa attorney, Jack Fernandez, wrote that on Sept. 18 he
asked Gordon Kromberg, assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District
of Virginia, to delay Al-Arian's transfer 30 days until after the
Islamic religious holidays of Ramadan.

According to a court motion filed by Fernandez, Kromberg responded:
"If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before
the grand jury, all they can't do is eat before sunset. I believe Mr.
Al-Arian's request is part of the attempted Islamization of the
American Justice System. I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's
grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the
Islamization of America."

Kromberg declined to comment Thursday.

According to the unsealed documents, Fernandez called Kromberg back
the same day and told him his comments "called into question (his)
objectivity." Two days later, Fernandez said, he asked Kromberg to
recuse himself from the part of his investigation involving Al-Arian.
Kromberg refused.

On Oct. 19, Kromberg called Al-Arian before a federal grand jury in
Alexandria, Va., and questioned him about his knowledge of the
workings of an Islamic think tank in Northern Virginia. Al-Arian
refused to answer, saying his "forced cooperation violated the plea
agreement" he had made with prosecutors in Tampa.

In April, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of aiding the terrorist
group Palestinian Islamic Jihad with nonviolent activities. He was
sentenced to 57 months in prison.

Al-Arian and his attorneys say that during plea negotiations it was
clear to all parties that "Dr. Al-Arian would not cooperate with the
government." Eastern Virginia was mentioned specifically.

They say Kromberg's words about Muslims raise questions about his
motives and suggest he is trying to catch Al-Arian in "a contempt
trap" to lengthen his sentence.

The same day Al-Arian refused to testify before the grand jury,
Kromberg asked a federal judge in Virginia to issue a contempt order
against Al-Arian that could extend his sentence by 18 months.

Earlier in the week, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody agreed with
federal prosecutors in Tampa that oral negotiations that weren't
"memorialized" are not binding. The plea agreement "does not make any
promise to the defendant that he will not have to testify in a court
proceeding," prosecutors argued. Al-Arian's attorneys plan to appeal
the decision.